[14] To keep construction costs low at the time, the decision was made to build a smaller stadium than Yost envisioned but to include the footings for future expansion.

Michigan had spoiled the formal dedication of Ohio Stadium in Columbus five years earlier and was victorious again, besting the Buckeyes 21–0 before a standing-room-only crowd of 84,401.

In 1930, electronic scoreboards were installed, making the stadium the first in the United States to use them to keep the official game time.

[22] Longtime radio announcer Bob Ufer dubbed Michigan Stadium "The hole that Yost dug, Crisler paid for, Canham carpeted, and Schembechler fills every cotton-pickin' Saturday afternoon".

[36] In August 2011, the University completed a six-month scoreboard replacement project; the new boards measure 4,000 sq ft (370 m2) each with a resolution of 900 x 1632.

[44][45] The stadium's original capacity was 72,000, but Fielding Yost made certain to install footings that could allow for expansion over 100,000 seats.

This too became problematic, as the field's below-surface location near the water table made it difficult for grass to permanently take root.

[48] Michigan Stadium holds the NCAA single-season average home attendance record, set in 2012 at 112,252 fans per game.

Previously, and prior to NCAA record keeping for attendance, a 1927 Notre Dame–USC game at Soldier Field in Chicago drew an estimated 117,000–123,000.

[13][50][51] Both of these records fell in 2016 when Tennessee and Virginia Tech drew 156,990 for a game held at Bristol Motor Speedway, a NASCAR track with a capacity of over 150,000.

[52] "The Big House" also holds the record for the largest attendance for an NCAA Division II football game, one involving Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.

Back in 1959, stadium announcer Steve Filipiak thought it would be amusing to include Slippery Rock with the other football scores he read to the crowd, due to the school's unusual name.

[54] The record was broken on January 1, 2014 for the NHL's 2014 Winter Classic, where a crowd of 105,491 saw the host Detroit Red Wings fall to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a shootout.

On Saturday, August 2, 2014, a sell-out crowd of 109,318 watched Manchester United defeat Real Madrid 3-1 in an International Champions Cup match.

[55] The official attendance figure was the largest for a soccer game in the United States to date, overtaking the previous record set by the 1984 Olympics Gold Medal match, when 101,799 saw France defeat Brazil 2-0 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

[18][56] Michigan Stadium also holds three of the top four U.S. Soccer attendances as a crowd of 105,826 watched a 2016 International Champions Cup match on July 30, 2016 where Real Madrid defeated Chelsea 3-2 and a crowd of 101,254 watched a 2018 International Champions Cup match on July 28, 2018 where Liverpool defeated Manchester United 4-1.